Bio-residue gasification – Science and

Technology
Combustion, Gasification & Propulsion Laboratory
Department of Aerospace Engineering

The Presentation
• The technology
o System configuration and elements.
• Scientific input to the technology development
o Results from basic studies and their use in design of the
gasification system.
Gasification process
Process that converts solid fuel to gaseous fuel
• Used in an internal combustion engine for power generation to
substitute fossil fuel
o Diesel engine – for dual fuel application
o Gas engine – for single fuel
• Used in heat application
o Low temperature – drying, etc
o High temperature – furnaces, kilns, etc
Technology elements
Salient features
• Well insulated reactor
o Ceramics – to stand high temperature and meet industrial
standards
o No metal would stand the oxidizing and reducing environment
• Necessary cooling and cleaning system
o to meet the end use requirements
Reactor design: II WW - Closed top design
Initial development activity began using a closed top design

Findings
• Combustion zone confined
to a small region
• Regions of low temperature
• Can handle only woody
biomass
• Turn down ratio limited
• Problem of consistent gas
quality
Reactor design - IISc design – open top

Novel reactor design

• Biomass + air -> volatiles +
char with CO2 + H2O -> 0.2
CO, 0.2H2, 0.12CO2, 0.02 CH4
+ rest N2
• Air is drawn from the top
and from the air nozzles –
o Uniform distribution
• Broader high temperature
zone

• Consistent high quality gas over the turn down ratio

• Varying biomass quality – can accept all agro residues
The ratio of air flow rate from the nozzle to the top depends on the fuel properties – size,
density; the char consumption rate, etc
Basic Research – Single particle
Reactants: (a) CO2 (b) H2O (c) air (d) O2

tb ~ d01.03 CO2 Kinetic and

diffusion
dependence

tb ~ d01.2 -1.3 H2 O Kinetic and

diffusion
dependence
tb ~ d01.9 air diffusion
limited

tb ~ d02 O2 diffusion
limited

Conversion time for char reaction with

1. CO2 is 3-4 times that of H2O
2. H2O is comparable to air at dp > 8
mm

Time for conversion depends on the particle density and diameter

Basic studies has helped in assessing
• Char consumption rate
o Depends on the concentration of O2, H2O and CO2
ƒ Has helped to use high density briquettes, coconut shell
and other agro residues as fuels
• Char quality
o For activated carbon
ƒ The reactions that occur in the gasifier produces high
surface area; evident from single particle studies
Air flow rate through the nozzles decides the consumption of char – fixes air
nozzle area
Basic Research – packed bed

With increase in mass flux the front velocity initially increases and then
reduces
• This fixes the turn down ratio of the gasification system
• Superficial mass flux and ash properties are used as design parameters

Gas cleaning - process

• Gas has to be cooled and cleaned for end use application
o Cooling by spraying water in scrubbers
o Cleaning is achieved using chilled scrubbers.
With this gas cleaning process it is possible to restrict the contaminants to ppb
levels
Gas cleaning
• After cooling
o Gas is saturated with moisture
o Contains fine dust and condensable (~ 25 ppm) even after filtering
– not acceptable to turbo charged engines
• Use the principle of condensation of moisture over nuclei of particulate
matter
o Scrub the gas using cold water (< 10 C)
 ƒ Dries the gas by condensing the water vapor
ƒ This happens over the particles – thus removing the
particulate in sub microns levels
ƒ The gas is dry and clean to ppb level Chilled scrubbers are
currently being used in all the systems
Chilled scrubbers are currently being used in all the systems